What is the true essence of marketing?
I believe that it can be distilled into three basic questions:
What is the true essence of marketing?
I believe that it can be distilled into three basic questions:
Why does pain sometimes feel like pleasure? Why do we enjoy music and art even though there aren’t any adaptive advantages? When does “one man’s meat” become “another man’s poison”?
The answers to these human behavioural puzzles (and more) can be found in How Pleasure Works. Written by Yale’s evolutionary psychologist Paul Bloom, the book uncovers the “new science of why we like what we like”. By delving into the fields of anthropology, evolution, history, biology and psychology, the book investigates why we humans are so different compared to our fellow earthlings.

Bob Hoffman (courtesy of The San Francisco Egotist)
Well, Bob Hoffman (above) seems to think so.
Before I talk about Bob’s ideas, let me state that I love Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation podcasts.

K-pop group SKarf – celebrity ambassadors for Samsung (courtesy of Samsung)
Riding on growing consumer interest to experience their mobile devices first hand, Asia’s number one brand Samsung has opened its first Samsung Mobile PIN in Singapore. A premium consumer experience space, the sprawling pop-up store will be at Ngee Ann Civic Plaza for a two-month period till 12 March 2013.

Vegetarian Pen Cai from Crystal Jade
Hungry for traditional Chinese fare this Chinese New Year?
Consider popping over to one of Crystal Jade’s many outlets.

John Maeda – creative leader par excellence (courtesy of Wired.com)
In the age of rapidly changing consumer tastes, ubiquitous digital connectivity and ever changing socio-cultural dynamics, the old ways of leadership will no longer work.
To survive and thrive in this tumultuous age, organisations need to be innovative, open, collaborative and flexible.
Have you wondered what works (and doesn’t) in Facebook?
Or how you can undo an ill conceived tweet let loose in a fit of anger?

Airlines always make it a point to offer luxury (AI Image from Nano Banana)
Does your organisation hold a common view of the customer experience? Does everyone know what it looks like when it is done well? What are you willing to give up to get it?
These questions frame the development of a customer experience vision for any tourism business.

Courtesy of HotelManagement.Net
The world has changed. Customers now have all the information they need to decide where they wish to visit, what they want to buy, and what services they require.
With an attention span of 90 seconds or less (at 140 characters each time), business as usual isn’t going to cut it for the Facebook and Twitter generation. The game has changed from word of mouth to world of mouse.
What will the future of InfoComm Technology (ICT) be like? How will these trends impact the way we work, live and play?
Painting the scenario of how things will evolve, Cort Isernhagen of IDC Insights forecasted at the recent Infocomm Technology Roadmap Symposium 2012 that the ICT landscape over the next 10 years needs to consider four macro trends supported by four key pillars of technology.